I am posting this mainly on the WotC boards, but they are having some serious problems and more ideas are just about always better. So, here are a few posts from that site cross posted over here.
I am planning a campaign that should start in January and I want to do something... different. Something I've never done before. Before you go on, there will be spoilers regarding the Shadow's of the Last War adventure. Not many, but consider yourself warned if you care about such things.
I plan to start the campaign in the Spring of 994 YK. A small band of infiltrators has been requisitioned to steal into a secure Cannith laboratory in the town of Whitehearth. At the same time though, a small force of Emerald Claw soldiers attacks the town and begins to plunder it of all manner of valuables.
During this havok the PCs may notice that there is a strange mist gathering about their ankles. Very thin, but as the conflict rages on (hopefully managing to get the feel of a race between the Claw and the PCs to get into the Cannith Lab first and get the Glazed Macguffin) it thickens and drifts higher and higher. By the time the chill of the mist is about their knees things should get pretty freaked out. Hopefully the PCs haven't gotten into the lab by the time the Mist is thickening about their waist, because I would hate to miss thier faces when I describe a rolling wall of the stuff a hundred feet high rushing towards them. Moments before the Wall hits the PCs there is a scream of metal and the heads of the metal hydra lift above the town and begin to spray superheated glass over the entire town as a last ditch effort to protect the lab above all else. The last thing the PCs will feel is a blast of scalding heat and then the chill of the Mist as it rolls over them.
Fast forward to a time where the PCs start moving again. Encased in glass they can barely move, but they strain and try to free themselves from their prison. They encounter another band of adventurers trying to break into the (now ruined) Cannith Lab and are mistaken for glass zombies. A few rounds of combat go by. The other party's cleric cannot turn them (naturaly) and this causes some concern, but eventually the other group will notice something odd.
"What the... these zombies are BLEEDING!"
The lacerations from struggling against the sharp glass is taking its toll on the PCs, but if they try to surrender and plead for aid I will certainly spare them. Even if they don't, the good and just priest of the whatever I feel like will try to subdue them to find out what is going on. A wizard will cast shatter to free them from the glass and the PCs will get a few rounds of parley before the Emerald Claw strikes again.
Violence ensues.
When the combat clears, the PCs will be alone again after the other party is slain as well as the Emerald Claw squad. With minor prompting they should be willing enough to head into the Lab and complete their mission and head out of the Mournlands with appropriate horror at what has happened to this once beautiful land in the space of what seems like minutes to them.
Then some other adventures happen... things occur and other such bits of a campaign take place. Eventually they discover something.
They cannot die.
You heard me.
Cannot die.
Oh, they still fall to the ground at -1 and to all appearances are dead at -10 (save for Deathwatch spells... they make the caster's head hurt), but instead they simply start healing at a normal rate. After a day of complete rest (and you can't get much more restful than a death like coma) they get twice thier hitpoints back and probably come to conciousness again. They just can't actually manage to cross over into Dolurrh.
Once they figure this out, I hope my grin will be suitably unnerving. The Mournlands have touched them. Changed them in strange and uncertain ways. I'll figure out more between now and then, but for now let me say that there WILL be a penalty for dying.
Taint rules are all well and good for short forays into the places where taint dwells, but for an extended campaign of it? Nah. Wasting away right away is a bit much to expect, but surely there is SOMEthing to be done... lets see...
HEY! Madness rules in the Wheel of Time book will work nicely! Every level the PCs gain will net them a d6 of variant taint that will chisel away at their minds and slowly twist their bodies. Every time they die they will get 2d6. As the rating gets higher the madness is harder and harder to keep in check.
Maybe I can roll on a homebrewed table to see if ghosts show up around the body when it comes back from "death" or a nalfeshee or marut shows up to bedevil the party and try to drag the hapless adventurer back to Dolurrh (where he won't fade away, but instead gain madness at an increased rate. One per hour or something).
The campaign will go from a standard D&D type game to a race against time to find cures for their deteriorating condition.
The Twelve may have a ritual that binds them together and makes their will to fight this curse stronger when they are together. Buying them more time, but still not enough.
They may have to navagate the Byzantine politics of the Church of the Silver Flame to speak with the Keeper in hopes that the Flame will purify them (it probably won't. the evil that germinates within them is too great).
They may be hunted by Ashbound or even Gatekeeper Druids who have found out about them and want them destroyed.
The Emerald Claw would certainly want to capture them and find out if the powers of the Mist may be harnessed for their nefarious ends.
Perhaps they will find out that they are now living seeds of another Mournland and when the curse finally takes its course another blasted waste will arise.
Perhaps the only way to stop the curse from taking full effect... is to find a way to die.
(cont)
I am planning a campaign that should start in January and I want to do something... different. Something I've never done before. Before you go on, there will be spoilers regarding the Shadow's of the Last War adventure. Not many, but consider yourself warned if you care about such things.
I plan to start the campaign in the Spring of 994 YK. A small band of infiltrators has been requisitioned to steal into a secure Cannith laboratory in the town of Whitehearth. At the same time though, a small force of Emerald Claw soldiers attacks the town and begins to plunder it of all manner of valuables.
During this havok the PCs may notice that there is a strange mist gathering about their ankles. Very thin, but as the conflict rages on (hopefully managing to get the feel of a race between the Claw and the PCs to get into the Cannith Lab first and get the Glazed Macguffin) it thickens and drifts higher and higher. By the time the chill of the mist is about their knees things should get pretty freaked out. Hopefully the PCs haven't gotten into the lab by the time the Mist is thickening about their waist, because I would hate to miss thier faces when I describe a rolling wall of the stuff a hundred feet high rushing towards them. Moments before the Wall hits the PCs there is a scream of metal and the heads of the metal hydra lift above the town and begin to spray superheated glass over the entire town as a last ditch effort to protect the lab above all else. The last thing the PCs will feel is a blast of scalding heat and then the chill of the Mist as it rolls over them.
Fast forward to a time where the PCs start moving again. Encased in glass they can barely move, but they strain and try to free themselves from their prison. They encounter another band of adventurers trying to break into the (now ruined) Cannith Lab and are mistaken for glass zombies. A few rounds of combat go by. The other party's cleric cannot turn them (naturaly) and this causes some concern, but eventually the other group will notice something odd.
"What the... these zombies are BLEEDING!"
The lacerations from struggling against the sharp glass is taking its toll on the PCs, but if they try to surrender and plead for aid I will certainly spare them. Even if they don't, the good and just priest of the whatever I feel like will try to subdue them to find out what is going on. A wizard will cast shatter to free them from the glass and the PCs will get a few rounds of parley before the Emerald Claw strikes again.
Violence ensues.
When the combat clears, the PCs will be alone again after the other party is slain as well as the Emerald Claw squad. With minor prompting they should be willing enough to head into the Lab and complete their mission and head out of the Mournlands with appropriate horror at what has happened to this once beautiful land in the space of what seems like minutes to them.
Then some other adventures happen... things occur and other such bits of a campaign take place. Eventually they discover something.
They cannot die.
You heard me.
Cannot die.
Oh, they still fall to the ground at -1 and to all appearances are dead at -10 (save for Deathwatch spells... they make the caster's head hurt), but instead they simply start healing at a normal rate. After a day of complete rest (and you can't get much more restful than a death like coma) they get twice thier hitpoints back and probably come to conciousness again. They just can't actually manage to cross over into Dolurrh.
Once they figure this out, I hope my grin will be suitably unnerving. The Mournlands have touched them. Changed them in strange and uncertain ways. I'll figure out more between now and then, but for now let me say that there WILL be a penalty for dying.
Taint rules are all well and good for short forays into the places where taint dwells, but for an extended campaign of it? Nah. Wasting away right away is a bit much to expect, but surely there is SOMEthing to be done... lets see...
HEY! Madness rules in the Wheel of Time book will work nicely! Every level the PCs gain will net them a d6 of variant taint that will chisel away at their minds and slowly twist their bodies. Every time they die they will get 2d6. As the rating gets higher the madness is harder and harder to keep in check.
Maybe I can roll on a homebrewed table to see if ghosts show up around the body when it comes back from "death" or a nalfeshee or marut shows up to bedevil the party and try to drag the hapless adventurer back to Dolurrh (where he won't fade away, but instead gain madness at an increased rate. One per hour or something).
The campaign will go from a standard D&D type game to a race against time to find cures for their deteriorating condition.
The Twelve may have a ritual that binds them together and makes their will to fight this curse stronger when they are together. Buying them more time, but still not enough.
They may have to navagate the Byzantine politics of the Church of the Silver Flame to speak with the Keeper in hopes that the Flame will purify them (it probably won't. the evil that germinates within them is too great).
They may be hunted by Ashbound or even Gatekeeper Druids who have found out about them and want them destroyed.
The Emerald Claw would certainly want to capture them and find out if the powers of the Mist may be harnessed for their nefarious ends.
Perhaps they will find out that they are now living seeds of another Mournland and when the curse finally takes its course another blasted waste will arise.
Perhaps the only way to stop the curse from taking full effect... is to find a way to die.
(cont)
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